The curious story of the manufacture of thousands of razor blades at the Toledo arms factory

After the summer, the Municipal Archive of Toledo returns to the fray with a new virtual exhibition entitled “Toledo and the manufacture of razor blades” in which an activity carried out in Toledo almost a century ago at the Arms Factory is recounted. And, as archivist Mariano García Ruipérez assures us, “few people know that in this establishment, in addition to all types of weapons, different surgical materials were manufactured…, as well as other products as varied as knives, clippers and razor blades.”

As he recounts, it all came about from the need to provide work for the workers at the National Factory after arms production was drastically reduced following the pacification of Morocco in 1926. Thus, the production of razor blades at the National Factory began to take shape in 1926. 1927. And Toledo became renowned throughout Spain for this product of which “the authorities of Toledo were proud and it was common for the personalities who visited us, such as the delegation from Toledo-Ohio in 1934, to receive small packages containing the famous “Toledo” leaves, especially if they approached the Factory. At that time, says García Ruipérez, around 20,000 blades. And these figures may have remained until the beginning of the Civil War, in July 1936, “since we understand that the war put an end to this activity in Toledo.”

From those years, it is preserved, in the Alba Collectionan extensive typewritten report, signed on September 19, 1932 by Colonel Mario Soto Sancho, director of the national factory, under the title “Technical study of the manufacture of razor blades”, which includes “precise technical data and photographs of the machines used in its production. Already in the 1960s, disposable razors appeared on the market, “whose manufacture was gradually taken over by two specific brands, one American (Gillette) and the other English (Wilkinson), which marked the beginning of the end of razor blades in Toledo.” Here you can read the full document.